Photo Session with Obama in Amsterdam

In my previous two posts on our visit to Madame Tussaud's wax museum in Amsterdam, I talked of meeting someone right at the main entrance of the museum and said that I would cover 'that someone' in a separate post. Well this posts lets out the secret as to whom did we meet.

As we entered the museum, the first life size celebrity wax statue was that of US President Obama. And everyone had a choice to pose with him to be 'officially' photographed. So we too had a hurried group photo and we were told that we could collect our photo at the top floor if at all we wanted to have it.

However, to our dismay the photo was badly taken when we reached the top floor to collect it. And we were really pulled down as there was no retake. However, a good man from USA who was employed at the museum came to our rescue. 

The good man with my sons - a thank you portrait for his personal efforts

He took us down and had ourselves photographed not once but thrice so that we could select the best photo out of the three so taken. And this is how it came finally, which was selected by us and we got it duly framed in Madame Tussaud's museum cover:

A memorable photo session with 'Barack Obama'

My previous posts on visit to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum:

Part -1

Part -2

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Madame Tussaud, Amsterdam - Photo Album (Part - Two)

Yesterday I shared some of the photos of my visit to the Madame Tussaud's wax museum of Amsterdam. But as I said there so many more that I would have to divide my post into two parts so as not to look monotonous. So here I am with the second part of Madame Tussaud wax museum as seen my me.


But before I do that, let me say a few words about Madame Tussaud. Madame Tussaud's real name was  Anna Maria Grosholtz who was born in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her interest in the wax statues was just by a stroke of luck when she became a housekeeper to a physician in the city of Bern. The physician made wax mask of the dead or caste models of celebrities' hands to preserve the person’s image for future generations and it has been a physician’s job. 

Keep watching the wax statues down below and read the remaining part of Madame Tussaud's contributions: 

Maria also became interested in the wax masks and started to learn and practice the fine art, rare at that time. The French Revolution (1789-1799) provided her 'ample models' from the decapitated bodies of those slain in the uprisings.

Maria then went to London to marry Mr.Tussaud and continued with her hobby of wax statues. The first Tussaud’s cabinet of wax figures opened in London at Baker Street in 1835. It included the “Chamber of Horrors” showing figures of victims of the French Revolution and famous criminals, already caught and hanged.

Her collection was greatly damaged in fires and German bombing of the WW-II when many statues just melted away in the fires caused by bombings.

Her collection has since been rebuilt and is today  owned by British amusement parks operator Merlin Entertainment. 

While the London's museum is the biggest and contains some very rare statues, the Amsterdam's is no less and provides a good coverage of Madame Tussaud's wax work.

When standing outside in the Dam Square and looking towards the Madame Tussaud's museum, one can spot a huge glass window round in shape between the two life size statues. That is how it looks from the outside.

And when we reached the top floor, we had a chance to see the Dam Square from this round window glass - it was simply a spectacular view outside and down below. That is how the Dam Square looks from the inside of building:

And finally this last photo - not with a wax statue but a real man and attendant. In fact this was a thank you and gratitude photo with this nice man, who helped  us in re-shooting of a photo we had taken at the entrance of the museum on the ground floor. I will talk of the celebrity with whom the photo was taken and then retaken in one of next posts.

So next time you are in Amsterdam, do visit the Dam Square and the Madame Tussaud's ex museum. It is just ten minutes walk from the from the Amsterdam Central Railway Station, if you are arriving the city by train.

If you are the Spider Man, you may 'hail' from any building from the Centraal Station to Dam Square. But if not try driving in.

In case you are driving in, something which my friend advised me not to because of the many trams moving about, the nearest parking is available in the Bijenkorf department store car park open 24h/7, accessible when driving from the Munt tower. In case this parking is full, which it usually is, go to P1 Parking Amsterdam Centre (Prins Hendrikkade 20), located left from the Amsterdam Central Railway Station.

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Dam - the Amsterdam City Centre

Dam Square is the Amsterdam city centre, not far from the main central railway station , rather I would say at conveniently walking distance - only about 750 meters. All roads lead to Dam through markets and beautifully kept and attractive shops shops.

After we had had a wonderful boat ride of the Amsterdam city, we headed for Dam - rather we started following one of the many streams of tourists going into the direction of Dam. The Dam Square is in fact historically the actually city centre of the city, with a large open space in the centre surrounded by many historical building including the historical Royal Palace. Dam was originally used as a fish market for its closeness to the river where ships could dock and load/unload their cargo.

Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace)- completed in 1655 was originally Amsterdam's town hall which became an imperial palace in 1808 during Napoleon's reign.can be seen in the photos below:

Adjacent to the palace (as can be seen to its right)  is the Gothic Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam's New Church dating back to the 14th century. These days it is being used as an exhibition/function space. 

Why it is called Dam, you may wonder. Well it means exactly the same as a dam is in English language. The name refers to a dam on the Amstel River. It is almost rectangular and stretches approximately 200 meters from west to east and almost 100 meters from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Mint Square) and the Munttoren (Mint Tower).

(the main railway station) and also after the boat ride, we followed everyone as all seemed to be heading towards the city centre.

However, by this time, it was almost lunch time and while walking we kept looking for something to eat and luckily we came across a shop, as can be seen below, which sold gigantic French Fries with a healthy splash of sauce. 

We straightaway bough a hefty pack of fries for each one of us, as can be seen in the photo below wherein my son is holding his pack with a bottle of cold drink. and let me tell you itt was the best French fries of my life.

While eating these mighty French fries, we kept walking towards the Dam Square while many other tourists chose to sit at road side eateries and order many mouth watering snacks and sandwiches. 

Streets leading towards the Dam Square

And soon we arrived at the Dam Square and which was already full of visitors, tourists and vendors.

  Bijenkorf Warehouse

The building to the right with a green dome is the the Great Industrial Club Building

There are many historical and attractive building overlooking the square besides the old Royal Palace as can be seen in the photos above. While moving about and crossing the roads, one has to be very careful of the electric trams, which almost bump into you as these are without any sound unless you are very careful. I almost did.

In one corner of the square is the famous "Nationaal Monument op de Dam" or simply the National Monument (above and below) - a 1956 World War II monument. Here each year on 4 May the national Remembrance of the Dead ceremony is held  to commemorate the casualties of World War II.

 My son sitting right in the centre of the Dam Square

Having seen and visited the Amsterdam Centraal, the boat ride and the Dam Square, our eyes were all fixed on one building in the Dam Square: Madame Tussaud - a museum famous for its wax statues of the world famous celebrities. Although the main museum is in London, this subsidiary of the main has a number of statues - but not as rich as that in London.

Madame Tussaud is located in the Peek & Cloppenburg —  a German company famous internationally for its fashion department stores. The building, in the neo-Classical style, was opened on April 17, 1916 is listed as a national monument.

This museum alone will be part of my next two posts as there are so many statues of famous people from around the world to share and with who we had the pleasure of having a photo. So stay tuned for what we found and saw inside the Madame Tussuad wax museum.

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